Brass Fest IV with Beaumont Brass & Wisconsin Brass Quintet

Brass Fest IV with Beaumont Brass & Wisconsin Brass Quintet

October 1, 2017

Join us for Madison’s only weekend of pure brass dominance, held annually since 2014!

This 4th year of UW-Madison’s Brass Fest will include two days of concerts, clinics and master-classes to entertain and educate brass musicians and fans of all ages. With guest quintet, the Beaumont Brass from Michigan State University, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet and top college performers.

On the program: Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” for two brass quintets.

If you love the vigorous yet melodic sound of brass music as much as we, then you won’t want to miss our fourth Brass Fest, to be held Saturday, September 30 and Sunday, October 1, 2017, on the UW-Madison campus.

Our Brass Fests offer more than just concerts. We also hold morning and afternoon master classes for trombone, tuba, euphonium, trumpet and horn. We invite young and old to discover the brass quintet genre and its myriad of musical styles, and offer a chance for young brass players to meet and mingle with other like-minded musicians.

Past guests have included tubist Oystein Baadsvik from Norway, trumpeter Adam Rapa, the youthful Axiom Brass from Chicago and the internationally-known Stockholm Chamber Brass on their first United States tour. Many pre-college students have attended, and we hope yours will too.

This year’s guests will be the Beaumont Brass Quintet from Michigan State University. They, along with our own fabulous Wisconsin Brass Quintet, will perform a concert on Saturday, September 30 at 8 pm, featuring arrangements (including a Bach Partita arranged for brass by our trombone professor, Mark Hetzler) and original brass works. Those will include “Music for Lighthorses” by David Biedenbender; “Quintet for Brass” by Andrew Duncan; and “Night-Shining White” by Zhou Tian.

The Beaumont Brass is Michigan State University’s faculty brass quintet. Formed in 1989, the quintet is named for the Beaumont Tower — an iconic carillon tower located on the MSU campus by the College of Music. The Beaumont Brass has performed throughout Michigan and the Midwest, presenting concerts and clinics in public schools, university concert halls, and churches. The ensemble has also appeared with the Empire Brass and the Canadian Brass. Graduate students who have performed with the quintet have gone on to win positions in the Saint Louis Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Lansing Symphony, United States Marine Band, Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, and at Eastern Michigan University. In 2000, the Beaumont Brass released its first recording, “Christmas at Beaumont Tower” (Mark Records #3609 MCD).